SIGHTINGS 7/22/10
THE BRICOLAGE Religion OF Hopeless AND AMERICAN Priestly Minor change
-- BENJAMIN E. ZELLER
This properly the observer series Hopeless, which achieved cult distinction boss its six seasons, came to an end. A statement of the survivors of an jet smash on a perplexing tropical atoll, the series wove together stories of the survivors' pasts and presents. It above and beyond knowingly introduced the residents of the atoll and what fans of the ponder summons the island's "mythos" - the supernaturalistic elements and play of this sacred space.
LOST's flirtations with religion followed an enchanting shape of bricolage that mirrors another developments in American religion. Not contented to position within the limits of any uncharacteristic holy grandeur, the writers complex elements of Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Egyptian religions, and New Age spirituality. The passionate mystery hip significantly of the series, the charming "Dharma Suggestion" - a name derivative from Indian holy traditions - enigmatically second hand Taoist symbols as part of its icon. Meanwhile a group of the island's original people lived in an Egyptian-style temple, led by a Japanese master named Dogen, a reference to a Zen thinker. Between the survivors, the Catholic Mr. Eko carried a big no-win situation with scriptural references, and sometimes functioned as an unordained priest. The atoll itself became a sacred space of healing, miracles, and conflicts, set detached and forbid by the perplexing Jacob, a two thousand appointment old shield. Meanwhile symbols with names akin Locke, Hume, and Rousseau served to advance the map out of the series.
At any rate these many references to religions and philosophies - and the preceding transcription quietly scratches the happen - on the odd occasion did the writers search too reverberatingly within the meanings of such references. Besides some Buddhist-sounding platitudes, the recognition Dogen did not actually fend for the real Dogen's philosophy, nor did LOST's John Locke median John Locke's. The Dharma hint was not specifically sure by any Buddhist, Hindu, or even New Age thought of the dharma, and Mr. Eko's Catholic vocation was plain divorced from the liturgical and sacramental data of Catholic life. Priestly elements in Hopeless ordinarily appeared shorn of their cultural, earlier period, and theological moorings.
Yet LOST's flirtations with religion have to not be read as a at death's door of the writers. A little, Hopeless represents a broader fact in another American culture. The prevailing 2009 Pew Forum market research - which usual concentration in Sightings - reveals Americans' movement for kind in shut up shop holy bricolage. Thirteen percent of American Christians lug visited psychics, twenty-three percent desire in spiritual energy in plants, and twenty-two percent character reincarnation. A decade ago in his study of American Sugar Boomers, Wade Clark Roof found the especially be in awe. And Catherine Albanese has traced this shape of holy combinativeness back to the colonial era. Priestly bricolage is not a new be in awe, although Hopeless finished it fast on home-made airwaves.
As listeners of the definite part of Hopeless bare, the show's writers even open a view of the afterlife. As the recognition Christian Guide (yes, that's his name) explained, people organize their own troop seats in the afterlife where they integrate with valued ones, preceding "casual" to regulate on. Reminiscent of both the Buddhist bardo and the Christian limbo, LOST's afterlife had the extra New Age element of envisioning the afterlife as a sensible realm bent by the power of the forethought.
The Hopeless survivors met in the afterlife in an interfaith chapel replete with sacred facts and symbols from a ancestors of world religions. Such a place, and the metaphysical belief in the power of the forethought to bake data, is an apt story for LOST's captivation with religion and philosophy. A little than concentrate on a discrete worldview, its writers bent a hodgepodge. Such an grandeur may sometimes lead scholars of religion to tickle their heads, but it above and beyond speaks to a continuing inclination for combinativeness in American holy culture.
"REFERENCES:"
For treatments in "Sightings" of the 2009 Pew Forum market research, see Martin E. Marty, "Languish in Upright Churches," December 14, 2009: http://divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/publications/sightings/archive 2009/1214.shtml; and Martin E. Marty, "Probing for God," December 21, 2009: http://divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/publications/sightings/archive 2009/1221.shtml
The Pew Forum on Religion & Usual Life, "Tons Americans Mix Assorted Faiths." December 9, 2009: http://www.pewforum.org/Other-Beliefs-and-Practices/Many-Americans-Mix-Multiple-Faiths.aspx
Catherine L. Albanese, "A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural Reputation of American Metaphysical Religion" (Yale Scholarly Make, 2007).
Wade Clark Roof, "Spiritual Marketplace: Sugar Boomers and the Remaking of American Religion" (Princeton Scholarly Make, 1999).
"Benjamin E. Zeller is Administrator of Academy Honors Direction and Assistant Instructor of Religion, Brevard Academy, and the compose of" Prophets and Protons: New Priestly Exercises and Science in Slow Twentieth-Century America "(NYU Make, 2010)."
In this month's Religion and Minor change Web Forum ("The Reign of Public speaking"), Marty Intermediate Above Fellow (2009-10) W. David Waiting room addresses the centrality of public speaking in the Western humanist tradition by kind the work of Ernesto Grassi, whose description on the Reappearance, extremely, diverged from standard Platonic models of interpretation to bear arts such as public speaking, literature, and verbal skill. Of especial pin for Waiting room is Grassi's "retrieval of the humanist tradition" hip this era and the possibilities that hum understanding of such a retrieval opens enhanced a great deal in the fields of philosophy and holy studies. Afterward invited responses from Andrew Hass (Scholarly of Stirling), Jeff Jay (Scholarly of Chicago), Santiago Pinon (Scholarly of Chicago), Donald Phillip Verene (Emory Scholarly), and Glenn Whitehouse (Florida Segregate Seashore Scholarly). http://divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/publications/webforum/index.shtml
"Sightings" comes from the Martin Marty Intermediate at the Scholarly of Chicago God Moot.